A new study has found that having too much hidden belly fat—called visceral fat—can make your heart age faster.
This could help explain why some people are more likely to develop heart disease as they get older, even if they seem healthy on the outside.
The study was done by scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences in London and was published in the European Heart Journal. Researchers looked at health data from over 21,000 people in the UK Biobank, including body scans and heart images.
They used artificial intelligence (AI) to study the images and estimate how “old” each person’s heart looked compared to their actual age.
They discovered that people with more visceral fat had signs of faster heart aging. Visceral fat is found deep inside your belly, wrapped around organs like your stomach, intestines, and liver.
You can’t see this fat from the outside, so even people with a normal body weight might have a lot of it. This kind of fat has already been known to raise the risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol, and now it’s also linked to aging the heart more quickly.
The study also found that blood tests showed people with more visceral fat had higher levels of inflammation, which may be one reason their hearts aged faster. Inflammation is when the body’s immune system is too active, which can damage tissues over time.
There were also clear differences between men and women. Men who carried fat mostly around their belly (sometimes called “apple-shaped” bodies) showed more signs of early heart aging.
In contrast, women who stored fat around their hips and thighs (a “pear-shaped” body) actually had slower heart aging. This protective effect was especially seen in women with higher levels of estrogen, a hormone that may help keep the heart young.
Professor Declan O’Regan, who led the study, explained that while we’ve known about the “apple vs. pear” shape for years, this is the first time scientists have shown how hidden belly fat can speed up aging in the heart. On the other hand, some fat in the hips and thighs might actually protect the heart, at least in women.
He also pointed out that body weight alone (like your BMI) doesn’t tell the whole story. Someone can be thin but still have too much visceral fat. That’s why knowing where fat is stored in the body is more important than just knowing how much a person weighs.
The goal of the research is to help people live longer, healthier lives. Even people who are physically active may still have harmful hidden fat. In the future, scientists plan to test whether medicines like GLP-1 drugs (such as Ozempic) can not only help with diabetes and weight loss, but also reduce the aging effects of this hidden fat.
Professor Bryan Williams from the British Heart Foundation added that this study shows why it’s so important to lower levels of visceral fat. He also said that estrogen, the hormone linked to the healthier fat pattern in women, may be the key to new treatments for heart aging.
In the meantime, the best ways to reduce visceral fat are to eat a healthy diet and be more physically active.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about why light-to-moderate drinking is linked to better heart health and reconsidering the long-term use of high blood pressure beta blockers after a heart attack.
For more about heart health, please read studies about heart disease hidden and essential vitamins for heart health: a guide to a healthy heart.
The study is published in the European Heart Journal.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
